BYD's roofless, no-windscreen, scissor-door supercar: Headed for production

BYD is the world’s largest EV producer. It produced 20% of the 10 million EVs sold globally last year, from Tesla (13%), Volkswagen (9%) and General Motors (6%) – those are all very rough figures for simplification purposes. For stats – go here.

It is also the dominant brand in the world’s largest and fastest growing automotive market, at a time when the global industry is starting to go through massive upheaval as it electrifies.

Henceforth, think of BYD as the likely market leader because it is already producing domestic and commercial EVs at massive scale, and it has been brand-building in China for a very long time.

In 2010, we spent time on the supercapacitor buses that circulated the ginormous Shanghai World Expo, marveling at how convincingly they pulled from the curb with the combined weight of 50 humans on board. When the Chinese Government decreed that the site emit no hydrocarbons, BYD got the job of building electric buses. They worked faultlessly.

BYD is an industrial complex of significant proportion already, purpose built to lead the way in the electrification of a country with 1.5 billion people, so it isn’t by chance that its constituent companies also build smartphones and electric monorails.

With its own massive low-car-ownership marketplace of 1.5 billion people to work with to build intelligent scaled production, it can be expected to be fielding very competitive EVs in every market category before too long.

Fang Cheng Bao and the Super 9 Concept

This Super 9 concept is another signal that China is seriously intending to go after the supercar market just as convincingly as it is moving to dominate the low-cost end of the market.

Fang Cheng Bao is a high-end brand being developed by BYD. Until this point, it has focused on electric SUVs, with the PHEV Bao 5 (Leopard 5) its only model released so far. The company has previously shown two other SUV concepts (the Leopard 3 and Leopard 8), so the showing of an open-top sports car in this Super 9 concept suggests that there might eventually be two or more lineages emerging.

One of the nuggets of information that escaped the internal conference where it was announced, is that the production version will be called the Bao 9, so apart from the inference that production is on the agenda, the name would also suggest that we may ultimately see Leopards 1-9 and Baos 1-9, and maybe more bloodlines for different purposes, technologies or...?

Unlike the PHEV Leopard 5, the Bao 9 is expected to be battery-electric.

Here’s what we know about the Super 9 concept so far. It's a two-seater with scissor doors, a dual cockpit separated by a strip of bodywork, and integrated carbon fiber seats. It's got a fighter-jet style cockpit, with a steering wheel that conjures either Formula One or an advanced video game rig, with additional buttons and controls on either side and down the center console.

The chassis is carbon fiber, which will keep the weight down – although it'll still run a heavy battery pack, which will affect outright handling.

Of course the main event here is the fact that there's no roof or windscreen whatsoever, and both driver and passenger will be fully exposed to the raw sensation of speed with only the tiniest hint of a glass bump in front of each seat to help direct wind up and over your head once you're moving.

This certainly doesn't make the Super 9 concept unique; the McLaren Elva and Aston Martin V12 Speedster having already been released with similar roofless designs. The McLaren is probably the more interesting of the bunch, since it channels a wall of air up through the hood to create a virtual windscreen that might keep your hair in better shape on the highway.

Either way, it's a bold and arresting design, and a statement concept from BYD. We're interested to see how well it makes the transition to a production model. Check out a video below.